16th century •
1500: In the
Spanish Empire, Catholicism was spread and encouraged through such institutions as the
missions and the
Inquisition. •
1517: Martin Luther posted
The Ninety-Five Theses on the door of
All Saints' Church, Wittenberg, launching the
Protestant Reformation. •
1526: African religious systems were introduced to the Americas, with the commencement of the trans-Atlantic slave trade. Inception of
Mughal Dynasty, which was one of the longest ruling in India from
1526-1858. Mughals were Muslims of Central Asian origin, speaking Persian as their court language. The majority of the population under their rule was Hindu, but the Mughals were predominantly Muslim. Except for Akbar and Jahangir, who were religiously tolerant, the Mughal emperors especially Aurangzeb tried imposing their religion on the others. •
1534: Henry VIII separated the English Church from Rome and made himself
Supreme Head of the Church of England. •
1562: The
Massacre of Vassy sparked the first of a series of
French Wars of Religion.
17th century •
1674: Chatrapati Shivaji Maharaj became 1st
Chatrapati of
Maratha Kingdom •
1699: Guru Gobind Singh Ji created the
Khalsa in
Sikhism.
18th century •
1708: Guru Gobind Singh, the last
Sikh guru, died after instituting the Sikh holy book, the
Guru Granth Sahib, as the eternal Guru. •
1770: Baron d'Holbach published
The System of Nature said to be the first positive, unambiguous statement of
atheism in the West. •
1781: Ghanshyam, later known as Sahajanand Swami/Swaminarayan, was born in
Chhapaiya at the house of Dharmadev and Bhaktimata. •
1789 – 1799: in the
Dechristianisation of France the Revolutionary Government confiscated
Church properties, banned
monastic vows and, with the passage of the
Civil Constitution of the Clergy, removed control of the Church from the Pope and subordinated it as a department of the Government. The Republic also replaced the traditional
Gregorian Calendar and abolished
Christian holidays. •
: The
Second Great Awakening, a
Protestant religious
revival in the
United States. •
1791: Freedom of religion, enshrined in the
Bill of Rights, was added as an amendment to the
Constitution of the United States, forming an early and influential secular government. •
1794: the
Cult of the Supreme Being in
France is founded by
Maximilien Robespierre.
19th century •
1801: the French Revolutionary Government and
Pope Pius VII entered into the
Concordat of 1801. While Roman Catholicism regained some powers and became recognised as "the religion of the great majority of the French", it was not afforded the latitude it had enjoyed prior to the Revolution and was not re-established as the official state religion. The Church relinquished all claims to estate seized after 1790, the clergy was state salaried and was obliged to swear allegiance to the State. Religious freedom was restored. •
1819 – 1850: The life of Siyyid 'Alí Muḥammad Shírází (), better known as
the Báb, the founder of
Bábism. •
1817 – 1892: The life of
Baháʼu'lláh, founder of the
Baháʼí Faith. •
1823: Joseph Smith claims to receive visions and golden plates to be translated as the
Book of Mormon. •
1830s: Adventism was started by
William Miller in the
United States. •
1830: the
Church of Christ was founded by
Joseph Smith on 6 April – initiating the
Latter Day Saint restorationist movement. •
1835 – 1908: the life of
Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, the founder of the
Ahmadiyya Movement. •
1836 – 1886: the life of
Ramakrishna, saint and mystic of
Bengal. •
1844: Joseph Smith was murdered, reportedly by John C. Elliott, on 27 June, resulting in a
succession crisis in the Latter Day Saint movement. •
1857: first great popular uprising against British colonial government in India. Also called
Indian Rebellion of 1857. •
1857: In Paris, Hippolyte Léon Denizard Rivail under the pen name of
Allan Kardec publishes
The Spirits Book, giving start to
Kardecist spiritism. •
1875: the
Theosophical Society was formed in New York City by
Helena Blavatsky,
Henry Steel Olcott,
William Quan Judge and others. •
1879: Christian Science was granted its charter in Boston, Massachusetts. •
1881: Zion's Watch Tower Tract Society was formed by
Charles Taze Russell, initiating the
Bible Student movement. •
1889: the
Ahmadiyya Community was established. •
1893: Swami Vivekananda's first speech at The
Parliament of the World's Religions, Chicago, brought the ancient philosophies of
Vedanta and
Yoga to the western world. •
1899: Aradia (aka
The Gospel of the Witches), one of the earliest books describing post
witchhunt European
religious Witchcraft, was published by
Charles Godfrey Leland.
20th century •
1901: The incorporation of the
Spiritualists' National Union legally representing Spiritualism in the United Kingdom. •
1904: Thelema was founded by
Aleister Crowley. •
1905: In France the
law on the Separation of the Churches and the State was passed, officially establishing
state secularism and putting an end to the funding of religious groups by the state. •
1907: Formation of
BAPS (Bochasanwasi Shri Akshar Purushottam Swaminarayan Sanstha), a major sect in the
Swaminarayan Sampradaya by
Shastriji Maharaj •
1908: The
Khalifatul Masih was established in the
Ahmadiyya Muslim Community as the "Second Manifestation of God's Power". •
1913: The
Moorish Science Temple of America is founded in Newark, New Jersey. •
1917: The
October Revolution in Russia led to the annexation of all church properties and subsequent religious suppression. •
1920: The
Self-Realization Fellowship Church of all Religions with its headquarters in Los Angeles, CA, was founded by
Paramahansa Yogananda. •
1922 – 1991: Persecution of Christians in the Soviet Union. The total number of
Christian victims under the Soviet regime has been estimated to range around 12 to 20 million. •
1926: Cao Dai founded. •
1929: The
Cristero War, fought between the secular government and religious Christian rebels in Mexico, ended. •
1930: The
Rastafari movement began following the coronation of
Haile Selassie I as Emperor of
Ethiopia. •
1930: After previously failing to claim the leadership of the Moorish Science Temple of America,
Wallace Fard Muhammad creates the
Nation of Islam in Detroit, Michigan. •
1931: Jehovah's Witnesses emerged from the
Bible Student movement under the influence of
Joseph Franklin Rutherford. •
1932: A neo-Hindu religious movement, the
Brahma Kumaris or "Daughters of Brahma", started. Its origin can be traced to the group "Om Mandali", founded by Lekhraj Kripalani (1884–1969). •
1939 – 1945: Millions of
Jews were relocated and murdered by the
Nazis during the
Holocaust. •
1947: Pakistan, the first
nation-state in the name of
Islam was created.
British India was partitioned into the secular nation of
India with a Hindu majority and the Muslim-majority nation of Pakistan (the eastern half of whom would later become
Bangladesh). •
1948: The modern state of
Israel was established as a homeland for the Jews. •
1954: The
Church of Scientology was founded by
L. Ron Hubbard. •
1954: Wicca was publicised by
Gerald Gardner. •
1955: The Urantia Book was published by the
Urantia Foundation. •
1956: Navayana Buddhism (Neo-Buddhism) was founded by
B. R. Ambedkar, initially attracting some 380,000 Dalit converts from Hinduism. •
1959: The
14th Dalai Lama fled Tibet amidst unrest and established an exile community in India. •
1960s: Various
Neopagan and
New Age movements gained momentum. •
1961: Unitarian Universalism was formed from the merger of
Unitarianism and
Universalism. •
1962: The
Church of All Worlds, the first American
neo-pagan church, was formed by a group including
Oberon Zell-Ravenheart,
Morning Glory Zell-Ravenheart, and Richard Lance Christie. •
1962 – 1965: The
Second Vatican Council was convened. •
1965: Srila Prabhupada established the
International Society for Krishna Consciousness and introduced translations of the
Bhagavad-Gita and Vedic scriptures in mass production all over the world. •
1966: The
Church of Satan was founded by
Anton LaVey on
Walpurgisnacht. •
1972 – 1984: The
Stonehenge free festivals started. •
1972 – 2004: Germanic Neopaganism (aka Heathenism, Heathenry, Ásatrú, Odinism, Forn Siðr, Vor Siðr, and Theodism) began to experience a second wave of revival. •
1973: Claude Vorilhon established the
Raëlian Movement and changed his name to
Raël following a purported extraterrestrial encounter in December 1973. •
1975: The
Temple of Set was founded in
Santa Barbara, California. •
1979: The
Iranian Revolution resulted in the establishment of an
Islamic Republic in
Iran. •
1981: The
Stregherian revival continued. "The Book of the Holy Strega" and "The Book of Ways", Volumes I and II, were published. •
1984: Operation Blue Star in the
holiest site of the Sikhs, the
Golden Temple in
Amritsar, led to
Anti-Sikh riots in
Delhi and adjoining regions, following the assassination of
Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. •
1985: The
Battle of the Beanfield forced an end to the
Stonehenge free festivals. •
1989: Following the
revolutions of 1989, the overthrow of many
Soviet-style states allowed a resurgence in open religious practice in many
Eastern European countries. •
1990s: Reconstructionist Pagan movements (
Celtic,
Hellenic,
Roman,
Slavic,
Baltic,
Finnish, etc.) proliferate throughout Europe. •
1993: The
European Council convened in
Copenhagen, Denmark, agreed to the
Copenhagen Criteria, requiring religious freedom within all members and prospective members of the
European Union. •
1993: The
World Union of Deists is founded in the United States. •
1995: First Traditional Hindu
Mandir outside of India created in London by
Pramukh Swami Maharaj (1921–2016) Guru of
BAPS. •
1998: The
Strega Arician Tradition was founded.
21st century •
2002: Joy of Satan Ministries was founded by Andrea Dietrich following her conception of the ideology of "spiritual Satanism". •
2005: Becoming a place of
pilgrimage for neo-druids and other
pagans, the
Ancient Order of Druids organised the first recorded
reconstructionist ceremony in
Stonehenge in 2005. •
2006: Sectarian rivalries exploded in Iraq between
Sunni Muslims and Shias, with each side targeting the other in terrorist acts, and bombings of mosques and shrines. •
2008: Nepal, the world's only Hindu Kingdom, was declared a
secular state by its Constituent Assembly after declaring the state a Republic on 28 May 2008. •
2009: The
Church of Scientology in France was fined €600,000 and several of its leaders were fined and imprisoned for defrauding new recruits of their savings. The state failed to disband the church owing to legal changes occurring over the same time period. •
2011: Civil war broke out in Syria over domestic political issues. The country soon split along sectarian lines between Sunni Muslims, Alawite and Shiites. War crimes and acts of genocide were committed by both parties as religious leaders on each side condemned the other as heretics. The Syrian civil war soon became a battleground for regional sectarian unrest, as fighters joined the fight from as far away as North America and Europe, as well as Iran and the Arab states. •
2012: The Satanic Temple was founded by
Lucien Greaves and Malcolm Jarry (pseudonyms). •
2014: A supposed Islamic
Caliphate was established by the self-proclaimed
Islamic State in regions of war torn
Syria and
Iraq, drawing global support from radical
Sunni Muslims. This was a modern-day attempt to re-establish Islamic self-rule in accordance with strict adherence to
Shariah-Islamic religious law. In the wake of the Syrian civil war, Islamic extremists targeted the indigenous Arab Christian communities. In acts of genocide, numerous ancient Christian and
Yazidi communities were evicted and threatened with death by various Muslim Sunni fighter groups. After
ISIS terrorist forces infiltrated and took over large parts of northern Iraq from Syria, many ancient Christian and
Yazidi enclaves were destroyed. •
2019: The
Orthodox Church of Ukraine is
granted independence from the
Russian Orthodox Church by the
Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople. == See also ==